Wasabi Batteries

[Bruce Foreman]

Originally Posted by Don Palomaki

The low cost of the Wasabi is perhaps in part due to more relaxed QC, so one can expect wider variations in performance of individual units.

That's probably true of most 3rd party vendors. I got the 2 Wasabi batteries plus charger for both my Olympus Pen and Panasonic GH2.

One of the batteries for the Oly flat out died (as in no "resusitation") on the 4th charge cycle. The other one swelled up in the camera and had to be pried out with sharp pointed leather punch (took almost an hour to get it out of the camera). Needless to say both went to a recycling station, I didn't have the time to mess with returning to Blue Nook.

The pair of Wasibis for the GH2 didn't cause any real problems. They seemed to provide noticeably less "run time" than the Lumix battery and when they quit it was totally without any warning. They lack the chip to communicate with the GH2. So they went the way of the others, to the recycling station too.

Couldn't take a chance of "shutdown" without warning on a project. So I pay the price for the "real" thing, bite my lip and move on.

[D.J. Ammons]

I have no experience with Wasabi but have used about a dozen generic batteries for my Sony V1U cameras, Manhatten LCD Monitor, and Z96 LED lights over the last three or four years. Out of that dozen I have only had two bad ones. Considering I paid $18-$22 for them vs. $150 for a Sony battery I just threw out the two that came bad and still came out far ahead. All of them had the info chip that meant the V1U's showed battery remaining in minutes, etc.

I just bought a Canon XA10 and bought a generic battery for it also. I picked one that had a lot of reviews and was higly rates. I have not really had a chance to see how well it works but it charged up just fine and shows the amount of minutes on it that I expected and was comparable to an official Canon battery.

[Jeff Harper]

I was very skeptical of the Wasabi's but mine work identically to the Canon's. I am very pleased with mine.

[Ryan Chaney]

I've purchased 4 of the Wasabi BP827's and have had ZERO problems with them, under heavy use week after week in a professional environment. They last forever, they accurately communicate with the camera about remaining capacity, and are in every was as good as the OEM Canons in my opinion. In over a year of use I haven't had so much as a hiccup with the Wasabis.

[Ryan Chaney]

Murphy's Law: Just as soon as I posted above about how great my experience with my four Wasabi BP-827 batteries has been, I had one partially malfunction on my this weekend! For some reason it no longer will communicate with the camera about how many minutes remain. It still holds a full charge and operates the camera perfectly otherwsie, but instead of saying "348 minutes" or whatever, it just shows a red battery icon with no estimate of capacity.

The good news is that Blue Nook's customer service was GREAT. Since the battery has a 3-year warranty and mine are all just over one year old, I called them today and within about 2 minutes they had a new one on the way without even requiring me to RMA the faulty battery to them. $6.50 for shipping, and that's it... Easy. =)

Overall, still a big fan of Wasabi batteries!

[Jeff Harper]

Someone please tell me, how long is required for a full charge for the 827's?

How long for a first charge? Also, how long for a full charge after running one down all the way?

I have back to back shoots this weekend and I want to plan things out.

I just ordered two more of these batteries, my first two operate exactly like the Canon. $44 for two plus a charger? No brainer.

[Aya Okawa]

So I was previously happy as a clam with my Wasabi batteries, given their affordable price. I have to say that now that I've had them for about 9 months, and probably shot about 45 hrs total using them, they don't hold their charge very well anymore at all. While I used to get about 200+ min on both of them, they now only charge to about 120-145 minutes. Also, I had one drop out on me totally when the on-screen gauge said it had 42 minutes of charge left. Thank goodness I had just started a new clip, so I only lost 3 minutes of footage as opposed to the 45 minute interview. Now I'm very nervous about using them to shoot longer performances.

Anyway, so my discovery from this experience is that a) the battery time gauge doesn't work very well; b) if the battery craps out before the clip is saved you lose it and c) wasabis need to be repurchased regularly. Has anyone else had this experience? Is this typical? I was hoping to avoid throwing down for Canon batteries for my XA10 but I don't want to risk more drop outs...

[Jeff Harper]

My camera shut off four times out of the blue yesterday during a wedding, using a Wasabi battery. I've been extremely happy, but I'm starting to get nervous using them now. Maybe they are too good to be true. I don't know.

[Don Palomaki]

This is an interesting development! Maybe it shoud be a new thread.
Part of the price ot batteries is quality control and the price/performance trade-off.
Time to check my Wasabis now that they are 6 months old.

I've had decent performacne from Lenmar's with my XL1/GL/XHA1, but 'veI read some unhappy reviews about their LIZ302C which is said tobe a BP827 equivalent.

There are a several other aftermarket equivalents as well, but few reports on user satisfaction yet.

[Aya Okawa]

Update: I purchased my Wasabis from Blue Nook, and I looked back at the amazon link where I got them, and they have a 3 year manufacturer warranty. I wrote to Blue Nook and got a very fast response from them, and they said they are shipping me new batteries, I just have to pay a shipping/handling fee. I was very happy with their prompt response and willingness to take care of the problem. With the next ones I'll definitely date them and keep a close eye on them after about 6 months...

Also, I had the shut off problem again when transferring footage from my camera to my computer, again I had about 45 min left on the battery and the camera just shut off all of a sudden.

[Don Palomaki]

An observation: Replacement only for shipping costs is nice as far as it goes, especially for non-critical uses/users. But it does not cover the effort to exercise the replacement option, the loss of use waiting for the replacement,or possible loss of video on a paying or otehrwisae important job. Where time is money one unnecesasry trip to the post office can eat up any savings compared to buying a battery that does not fail prematurely.